| |   | Good morning and happy Thursday, D.C. Diagnosis readers! I wanted to extend an invitation to STAT’s flagship conference coming up next month. I’ll be talking with patient advocates Gunnar Esaison and David Mitchell about drug pricing, and the rest of the agenda is stacked with exciting speakers. It’s in-person in Boston, but there are virtual pass options as well. As usual, pass along all your tips to rachel.cohrs@statnews.com. | | | The policy behind the GOP’s Medicare reform plans  Jim Banks, chair of the republican study committee (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Democrats are suddenly blasting Republicans on the campaign trail over a surprising new topic: their plans to reform Medicare. The rhetoric has been pretty high-level so far. Republicans’ official campaign platform provides scant detail about what steps they would pursue to “save and strengthen” Medicare and ensure its financial solvency. But a document produced by a large caucus of House Republican lawmakers offers some hints to what they’re looking at.
Some of the ideas would cut money from hospitals and health insurers, two powerful interests that would certainly have something to say if Republicans’ ideas made any headway in Congress anytime soon. Learn more about the details we have here. | Private equity’s new undercover lobbying effort Five big, private equity-backed physician staffing companies have banded together to form an under-the-radar coalition to lobby on the government’s implementation of a new law banning surprise medical billing. The major players involved include KKR-backed Envision Healthcare (which has its own financial woes), ApolloMD, which is backed by ValorBridge Partners, Radiology Partners, which is backed by Starr Investment Holdings, SCP Health, which is backed by Onex, and TeamHealth, which is backed by Blackstone. The firms have formed a group called “Americans for Fair Healthcare” run by the lobbying firm Liberty Partners Group, per recent lobbying filings. There’s no website or other public presence for the coalition, which is lobbying on surprise billing and ”appropriate health plan coverage for physician services.” Liberty Partners Group didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Longtime followers of the surprise billing debate will remember that this is a familiar tactic. TeamHealth and Envision hid behind a dark-money group called “Doctor Patient Unity” in 2019 to run television advertisements before the law passed. | In-depth analysis of biopharma and the life sciences Sign up for STAT+ to access in-depth analysis of biopharma, inside intelligence from Capitol Hill, the latest on medicine tech, and more. Subscribe today to start your free 30-day trial. | Takeaways from the Fetterman-Oz debate, from actual medical experts The political world has been abuzz following the Pennsylvania Senate debate on Tuesday, where John Fetterman at times stumbled over his words following his stroke five months ago. Experts in stroke and speech, though, told my colleague Drew Joseph that issues with language skills after a stroke are often separate from any potential impact on someone’s cognitive abilities. Moreover, they said they hope the attention on Fetterman will raise awareness about and acceptance of the types of accommodations that are commonly used by people with disabilities, including some of the 800,000 people who have strokes a year in the United States. Drew has more nuance in the full story. | Montana backs off its innovative hospital price cap model Montana turned heads when, in 2016, it established maximum amounts the state’s employee benefits health plan would pay for all hospital services. The adoption of that model, known as reference-based pricing, has saved the state tens of millions of dollars. But now, the state is backtracking, Katheryn Houghton reports for Kaiser Health News. In September, the state awarded Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana a contract to take over the administration of the public employee health plan starting next year. It gives Blue Cross the ability to meet those goals with prices pegged to Medicare — but also by negotiating deals with individual health care providers using a mix of reimbursement models.
The new story out this morning has more details about the state’s new strategy. | What we're reading -
When it comes to addiction, Americans’ word choices are part of the problem, STAT -
Moderna nears US deal to develop shots for Ebola, other biological threats, Bloomberg -
Q&A: A health justice lawyer and new MacArthur ‘genius’ on pharma’s patent games, STAT -
It cost $38,398 for a single shot of a very old cancer drug, NPR -
Opinion: After 30 years of 340B, it’s time for data and an honest conversation, STAT -
Arizona measure could be a model for Democrats nationwide, Politico | | | Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,  | |
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